Controlling your privacy on HealthUnlocked

Writing about your health experiences has the potential to help others in a similar situation and ultimately, transform lives. By doing this, you naturally share sensitive information, which is why we encourage you to stay anonymous. Read more below to learn your privacy options.

Staying anonymous

Username

To ensure you remain anonymous, we encourage you to choose a non-identifiable username. If you have already signed up with an identifiable username (something close to your real name), you can change it in your account settings

Posting

Whenever you write something on HealthUnlocked, your post will not only be visible in your community, but it will also be visible on search engines too. This is because search engines signpost people who are using words that match those in your post to help them find support and answers to their question. With this in mind, remember these privacy tips:

Don't share your real full name
Don't share your contact details
Don't share any other piece of information that could identify you.

For more information on posting options, please read: Who can see my posts?

Profile

On your profile, you can add information about yourself such as your gender, age and country as well as conditions, symptoms and treatments. If there is a section you are not comfortable displaying to others just select ‘Hide’.

If you wish to remain anonymous, it is highly recommended that you do not choose your avatar to be an image of yourself.
If you want to edit your profile and see how it appears to others, please click here

Privacy options

You have 2 privacy settings on your account settings page

1. Allow other members to follow me

3. Allow other members to see who I’m following

If you are followed by others, it means that they will receive updates about your new posts. If one of your followers isn't a member of a certain community, they won't be notified of posts you make visible to followers of that community only. Using the word private may be misleading, better to describe as posts that you have made visible to followers of the community only.

Data sharing

HealthUnlocked may use de-identified, aggregated information collected through the site (e.g. polls, symptom surveys, etc). This data will never directly or indirectly reveal your identity.

This information may then be published as a study or shared with our research partners. The third parties we collaborate with all share our ideals that this data must only be used in an effort to improve healthcare for everyone.

You can always control whether your information is used in this way. Visit your account settings